Réunion, formerly called ÎLE DE BOURBON, an island belonging to France, and lying in the Indian Ocean, 115 miles SW. from Mauritius and 350 E. from Madagascar. An ellipse in shape, it has an area of 764 sq. m., being 38 miles in length and 28 in breadth. Pop. (1894) 171,750, mostly Creoles, but including 15,000 negroes and nearly 30,000 natives of India. The backbone of the island is a volcanic range, culminating in two highest peaks, the Piton de Neiges (10,069 feet) in the centre of the island, and in the south-east Piton de Fournaise (8612 feet), one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The central parts of the island between these volcanic peaks consist of plateaus and terraces, separated by deep cauldron-shaped valleys and narrow, but profound, gorges and ravines. Piton de Fournaise is surrounded by a vast dreary desert called the Pays Brûlé ('Burnt Land'). Except in the mountainous parts the soil is in general very fruitful. The scenery is often beautiful. Streams, although not large, are very numerous, and fall in cascades to the sea. The climate is hot, but on the whole not unhealthy. Rainfall averages 45½ inches in the year. Cyclones sometimes occur during the hotter and rainy part of the year (November to April), and high spring-tides occasionally do serious damage during the remaining drier months. One-third of the island is cultivated, one-third under timber, and one-sixth is grass-land. Tropical fruits, sugar (the staple crop), coffee, vanilla, cinchona, maize, vegetables (potatoes, &c.), spices, tobacco, and similar products are grown. The total trade is estimated at 1½ million sterling—exports, £650,000; imports, £700,000 to £900,000. By far the most important article of export is sugar (£450,000); coffee, vanilla, rum, potatoes, and tapioca are the other chief exports. The imports consist principally of rice, claret, and in a secondary degree lard, live cattle, fish, grain, coal, oils, flour, and cloth. The capital of the island is St Denis, on the north coast, with 33,000 inhabitants, a college, a botanic garden, &c.; it is a bishop's seat. The remaining towns are St Paul, on the north-west, with 29,000 inhabitants, and with marine workshops; St Pierre, on the south-west coast, pop. 25,009; Pointe des Galets, the new port, between St Denis and St Paul; and Salazie, with warm mineral springs, a health-resort of 6000 inhabitants. The coast towns are connected by a railway 78 miles long. The colony costs France some £170,000 every year, and is administered by a governor and a council of thirty members. Réunion and Mauritius were discovered by the Portuguese navigator, Mascarenhas, and named after him the Mascarene Isles. The French took possession of this island in 1649, and called it Bourbon, which was changed to Réunion at the Revolution, and to Isle Bonaparte in 1809. Réunion has been the official name since 1848. The island was in the possession of Britain from 1810 to 1815.
See Bory de St Vincent, Voyages (1804); Maillard, Note sur la Réunion (1862); Roussin, L'Île de la Réunion (4 vols. 1882-90); and W. D. Oliver, Crag and Craters: Rambles in Réunion (1897).